Author visits Lions Club

Lincoln’s funeral train discussed

VANDALIA — The featured speaker at the October 12 dinner meeting of the Vandalia Lions Club was Scott Trostel, who is a Historical Writer and resides in Fletcher, OH. He has written 53 Historical Books, the latest being The Lincoln Funeral Train and The Inaugural Train.

These two books include information covering 37 years of research. His presentation was on the Lincoln Funeral Train, and revealed many generally unknown events between the assassination on April 15, 1865 and burial in Springfield, Ill. The trip took 13 days and didn’t reach Springfield until May 3, due to many stops along the way to accommodate huge crowds who wanted to pay their respects in addition to the need to change train Locomotives several times. Stops included Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton & Jersey City, NJ, New York City, West Point, Albany, Syracuse, Batavia, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Urbana, Piqua, Indianapolis, and Chicago.

Lincoln’s wife didn’t want him buried in Springfield because she preferred Chicago, and he was moved there to a mausoleum, where some people tried to kidnap his body to get a friend out of prison.

Lincoln didn’t get his final burial in Springfield until the year 1901.